A finite element met
hod is presented to predict t
he flexural properties of resorbable p
hosp
hate glass fibre reinforced PLA composite bone plates. A novel met
hod for mes
hing discontinuous fibre arc
hitectures is presented, w
hic
h removes many of t
he limitations imposed by conventional finite element approac
hes. T
he model is used to understand t
he effects of increasing t
he span-to-t
hickness ratio for different fibre arc
hitectures used for PBG/PLA composites. A span-to-t
hickness ratio of 16:1 is found to be appropriate for materials wit
h randomly orientated fibres, w
hic
h agrees well wit
h t
he test standard. However, for
hig
hly aligned materials t
he model indicates t
hat a span-to-t
hickness ratio of 80:1 is required, in order to minimise t
he effects of s
hear deflection.
The model is validated against flexural stiffness data from the literature for a range of polymers, fibres and fibre volume fractions. Generally there is less than 10 % error between the FE predictions and experimental values. The model is subsequently used to perform a parametric study to understand what material developments are required to match the properties of PGF/PLA composites to cortical bone. It is concluded that alignment of the fibre is necessary to exceed the 20 GPa target, since the current manufacturing methods limit the fibre length to ¡«10 mm, which consequently restricts the flexural modulus to ¡«19 GPa (at 50 % volume fraction).